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Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Why your home needs the new Amazon Echo Dot

Home Automation is a great way to make your home more efficient and in the long run save you money. One of the concerns was multiple users or how the automation was tied to a phone or a switch. Amazon Echo changes all of that. Now anyone can control the house with their voice instead of their phone.
The Amazon Echo Dot is a great addition to a home automation system for the following reasons: price, performance and persistence.
Currently there are only two real options in voice control. Google Home and Alexa products. Google Home is brand new and excels in some aspects but lags in others. For the purposes of this article we are going to stick with home automation basics.

Price:
The Echo Dot is only $50 and is primarily for voice commands. The Amazon Echo ($180) has built in speakers and is for voice commands and music playback. The Google Home ($130) is similar to the Amazon Echo in that it has a built in speakers and a higher price tag.

Performance:
The Echo Dot works wonderfully by itself for the simple light user and even better with a SmartThings Hub. If you have begun building a automated system then you probably have a hub. If you don't have a SmartThings hub then you need to switch. Why do you need a SmartThings hub?

Persistence:
The Amazon Alexa line has been around for a few years now. Google Home only recently came out and until they release a smaller product without speakers the device can be redundant. That being said, I would not go out and buy a Dot and Echo for every room of the house. Google is slowly coming around to the home automation world and will most likely take over. Amazon's lack of cooperation with Google is a little frustrating. I can see a world where the two work together and benefit the consumer...but that might be in a parallel universe.

Hope this helped. Be sure to use the links on this page. To make sure you are getting the right products.